The present invention relates to a karaoke network system composed of a central station for serving a song data, and local stations each connected to the central station through a communication line for presenting a karaoke event in response to a request according to the served song data. More specifically, the present invention relates to a karaoke network system operative to fill an idling time when a request is absent.
A conventional karaoke apparatus is basically constructed to sound through a loudspeaker an instrumental accompaniment of a requested song, which is mixed with a live vocal performance, while lyric characters of the requested song are displayed on a monitor. The karaoke apparatus is widely spread while its performance improves more and more. For example, a background picture is displayed on the monitor during the vocal play for significantly enhancing a stage effect of the karaoke event. Conventionally, the background picture is presented coincidentally with sounding of a karaoke accompaniment of the requested song, and therefore the background picture is turned off when the karaoke event is ended. Consequently, in an idling state where a request is absent, the monitor displays nothing and the loudspeaker is held silent.
In order to fill such a dull and boring blank period, a separate cable broadcast or else may be turned on to sound a music or else. However, such a filler is rather uninteresting, and does not efficiently utilize the monitor in most occasions.
Aside from a stand-alone type of the karaoke apparatus, recently a karaoke network system has been developed such that a central station provides a requested song data to a local terminal composed of a karaoke apparatus through a communication line such as Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN). In the system, the terminal karaoke apparatus can advantageously reduce a data storage volume as compared to the stand-alone karaoke apparatus. Further, the data storage can be readily updated through the communication line by adding a new entry song data. However, like the stand-alone karaoke apparatus, the terminal karaoke apparatus of the network system cannot fill the blank period by itself.